Quote:
Originally Posted by Pablo
In july 2008 I read that a version of Metropolis that had been considered lost for more than 80 years had been found in Buenos Aires, in a museum. Experts believe that it is the original version exhibited by Fritz Lang in 1927, in Berlin. The movie was sent back to Germany.
The article (in spanish), can be found at
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/07...m-01706863.htm
I wonder if the movie was restored from this version. |
Yes, it was (it may not have been Lang's original print, however). After a year held up in transit, the B.A. print was delivered to the movie's restorers in Germany, and they worked for about half the year or more doing the restoration and adding it to the 2002 material, re-editing the score to fit the longer version. The B.A. print was not in good enough shape to replace the restored material from 2002, but it was used to add to the missing material to get the full movie. Because of its incredibly bad shape, the B.A. additions look noticeably worse in quality against the 2002 material. Perhaps, in time, it can be improved upon.
The new version is 25 minutes longer than the 2002 release (though they bill it as the "Complete Metropolis," it is still short a few frames of the original that were unrecoverable, possibly lost through censorship). About $800,000 was spent on the restoration of 25 minutes of film.